Sunday, August 1, 2010

GSoC Progress: MarbleToGo(Navigation Mode) code in trunk

I am very glad to inform that most of the code for my GSoC Project is in the trunk now.
In continuation to my previous blog post about auto centering, the following features are now added to Marble.

Auto Zoom: It is an optional feature, if enabled the map adjusts itself to an appropriate zoom level so as to keep an appropriate distance on the way ahead visible to the user respective to the current location of the gps device.

Showing current route instruction and a plugin for showing time and distance remaining to reach the destination.

The plugin (bottom right of the map) shows the time and distance remaining as well as the distance covered(progress bar) during the journey.
The route instructions(For Example: move left, move right etc.) appear few minutes before reaching it. When the user selects a particular instruction now, the portion of the route where the instruction is valid gets highlighted.

Downloading of maps on and around the route for offline usage : You may require to use marble for offline use while navigating. So now Marble has the functionality to download the region for route required. And more, you can now specify the offset in metres around the route you would like to download( for people who like exploring while travelling :-) ) as well as the tile level ranges . It not only makes one to be ensured that all relevant portion of the map has been downloaded but also reduces the download size as well as the number of tiles required to be downloaded ( people having limited usage Internet connection or slow connection-take a note :D )

In the coming days (and for some days now) I would be working on Interface for Small Screen devices ( like N900 ) so as to make routing experience more convenient.